


In the Dark

by Kerkerian



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Abduction, Angst, Danny Whump, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Five-0hana, Fluff, Hurt Danny, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Steve Needs a Hug, mcdanno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-18 01:01:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14201628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kerkerian/pseuds/Kerkerian
Summary: When Danny is kidnapped, Steve finds it difficult to cope.





	In the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Five-0.

 

Coming back from his morning swim, Steve walks into the house while he's still rubbing his hair with his towel. Eddie squeezes through the door just before him and heads towards the kitchen where he knows his breakfast is waiting; Steve is about to follow him when the dog suddenly stops, his whole body tensing, and then he growls very softly, sniffing the air. Steve freezes, noticing two things at once: it doesn't smell of coffee and the front door is ajar. His stomach drops, but he immediately wrestles down all his worries concerning Danny; instead, he silently retrieves one of his emergency weapons from a nearby drawer, motions for Eddie to stay put and moves towards the kitchen.

As he already feared, it's empty. Danny's service weapon is lying on the counter; the bag of coffee beans lies right next to it, most of its contents spilled on the floor, and when he sees that, Steve's stomach drops some more. He turns on his heels and runs upstairs, shouting for his partner even though he already knows it's futile. Back downstairs, he has Eddie sniff around the kitchen; predictably though, the trace seems to end right outside where their vehicle must have been parked. Steve grabs his phone and runs outside and towards the main road which is entirely empty, then runs back to look for tire tracks while he dials Chin's number.

He doesn't wait for his colleague to identify himself because his stomach is churning by now and the words come tumbling out as soon as the call is being answered: “Chin, it's me. It's Danny.” To his dismay, he can barely speak, and that has nothing to do with the fact that he's been running.

Chin, bless him, doesn't waste any time with stupid questions. “What happened? Steve?”

Momentarily, Steve flounders; he finds it hard to breathe, and it's surprisingly difficult to gather his thoughts: “He's been abducted.”

There's a slight pause during which Steve can hear his blood roaring loudly in his ears.

“Stay calm,” Chin then says, though Steve thinks that his voice is trembling with agitation ever so slightly as well, “I'll be right there.”

There's something about Chin's quiet demeanour which Steve usually finds immensely reassuring; today though, he is shaking just as badly as before when he ends the call and dials Duke's number next.

 

When Chin arrives ten minutes later, Steve is dressed and in full operating mode. He's already dusted the kitchen and the front door for prints, albeit without any results. He's still trembling, but he needs to focus, needs to think clearly, for Danny.

“Kono's heading to HQ as we speak,” Chin says, “she'll try to locate Danny's phone. Do you know if he's got it with him?”

“I think so. Otherwise it'd be lying here, together with his gun.”

Nodding, Chin looks around: “So what happened?”

Steve shakes his head: “They must have known our routines,” he murmurs. “Eddie and I were out swimming, we do that every morning. Danny usually gets up in the meantime, makes some coffee...” His voice trails off as his gaze falls on the spilled coffee beans. At least there isn't any blood, he tells himself, though he is painfully aware of the fact that this isn't any reason for relief.

Chin can see how hard this is on Steve, how much it is taking out of him to keep his composure. He knows the feeling too well, and he's sorry for his friend. He doesn't even dare to think of Danny, can only hope that they'll get him back alive and well. But just like Steve he is aware that this, whoever is behind it, probably hasn't been pulled off by amateurs.

His phone rings; it's Kono. Chin puts her on speaker:“I'm at the office now,” she says, sounding a bit out of breath.

They stay on the line while Kono is running the data. “His phone is right outside Steve's house,” she says a short while later, sounding dejected.

Steve immediately runs to look for it; it's lying on the other side of the narrow alley. Apparently, they've immediately searched Danny, so no, definitely no amateurs. For a moment, Steve sags; he can't imagine what this is about. And as long as they don't have any leads, they'll have to wait. _He_ has to wait, in case there's a call for ransom on the landline. He's already close to going off the rails, wants to destroy something; how is he supposed to endure what could be hours of waiting?

Shaking his head, he heads back inside where Chin is still on the phone.

“You said they must have known your routine,” he now says to Steve, who nods. “Kono, check out if there's any CCTV footage of this neighbourhood, maybe there's something there.”

“On it.” Kono's voice is clipped.

While she is still busy with the search, another car pulls up outside; it's Grover.

Wordlessly, he walks up to Steve and envelops him in his arms, holding him in a bear hug for at least half a minute. Steve hugs him back, but he remains tense; he is grateful for Lou's support, but he doesn't want any comfort now. Not when he doesn't know where Danny is. Or if he is okay.

“Any news?” Grover then asks, and Steve shakes his head. None of them says aloud what they all have been thinking: if somebody wanted Danny dead, they'd have killed him right here. So there will have to be some kind of demand sooner or later; right now, it's their only hope.

 

Danny doesn't know what happened. His ears are ringing and his head feels as though he collided with a wrecking ball. It takes him a while to realize that his eyes are open, but it's dark around him- darker than he is used to after so many years of living in Hawaii. This is the kind of darkness one gets in the deepest winters the eastern seaboard has to offer, when the sky is clouded over and extinguishes the moon and the stars. It's cold, too, and for a wild, unhinged moment, Danny wonders if he is in Jersey. He blinks, which hurts as well, but after taking stock of the rest of his body, he finds that he seems otherwise unharmed. He's also unbound. Later, he'll find that alarming, but for now, he's still busy trying to find out the what and where.

He sits up, slowly; a wave of dizziness rolls over him, leaving him nauseous and wanting to simply curl up in a ball, but something tells him that he can't. So he waits until he's able to move, and gets to his feet, patting down his trouser pockets as he does so: nothing, so they've taken his cell phone. Too bad, but worth a try. He stretches out his arms and takes a step forward; immediately, his hands touch something. He fights the urge to shy back; it seems to be a wall of some kind. It feels clammy somehow, and slightly rough. He moves along it and soon arrives at a corner.

Once he's done this for a few minutes, one thing has become very clear: he's in a small, apparently square room without any doors or windows, probably in a basement somewhere. He couldn't reach the ceiling, but each wall is less than five inches long, approximately. He can hear his blood rushing in his ears and feels a rather violent shudder running down his spine. He tries to breathe evenly, trying to tell himself that it's all in his head and that he doesn't need to panic, but to no avail. Trembling, Danny lowers himself onto the ground again; he's trapped in a hole, that's all he can think of. It doesn't matter how he got there or what's going to happen, because he's sure that he'll suffocate anyway. This time, he does curl up into a ball.

 

“Got something!” Kono all but yells about twenty minutes later.

“What? What is it?” Steve's voice is hoarse.

“I've been able to pull some footage from two different cameras by the main road. There's one white van, an older model Ford Transit, which has been passing by every morning, and it looks as though it was headed in the direction of your house. It passed by around six and then again around eight for the past seven days. Today, it came by around seven and left a little while later, and quite fast at that.”

“That must be it,” Steve says. “Did you get the license plate?”

“Yeah. Running it now.”

“Tell me it hasn't been stolen.” _Please_.

“No... it belongs to one Trevor Jennings. Does that ring a bell?”

Steve shakes his head: “I don't know.”

“Sending you an image now.”

Steve pulls up the file on his mobile; Jennings doesn't look familiar, but he's got a rap sheet full of mostly minor offenses. Something doesn't seem to add up here, but at least it's something to go on. Steve hates it that he's got to stay put though; he calls Duke and gets HPD to issue an APB, but it's Chin and Lou who're driving to Jennings' house. It were also Chin and Lou who checked with Steve's immediate neighbours, none of whom however have noticed any strange vehicles.

Since he can't do anything but wait, he nervously paces around the living room. Eddie, who senses that something's wrong, looks at him with a sorrowful expression that mirrors Steve's own feelings.

 

Jennings' house is abandoned, and a cursory search doesn't offer any new leads, nor does anything hint at Jennings being involved in the kidnapping at all. Chin and Lou aren't anything if not thorough, though. Two hours later, Chin calls Steve, who by now is a wreck because the kidnappers should have called in the meantime. Steve has been pacing up and down in front of the phone, mobile in hand, but there was nothing so far.

When Chin tells him that they found something, he has to sit down. “What is it?”

“A laptop, hidden in the dryer of all places. It took me some time because he had deleted the browser history, but he's been looking up things: where to best illegally buy weapons on Oahu and how to leave the islands unnoticed by the authorities.”

Steve frowns: “Okay. Anything we can use?”

“Not really. One name pops up a few times though, maybe he's worth a visit.”

“Who?”

“Guy called Kahele. He's doing time in Halawa.”

 

So more waiting.  Just as Steve thinks that he'll really go mad now, there's a knock on the door and Kamekona comes in. “Hey, brah,” he says, patting Steve on the shoulder. “Kono called me and asked me to check up on you.”

Steve is touched: “Thank you.”

“How are you holding up?”

Steve hesitates ever so briefly, but there's no point in lying. “I hate this. I'm useless, sitting around the house and waiting for a call that may never happen.”

“So sorry,” Kamekona says, shaking his head. “But if I know one thing it's that the little guy is tougher than he looks.”

Steve nods and refrains to tell his friend that he's scared nevertheless, more scared than he's ever been in his life, except maybe for that one time on the phone with his dad right before he was shot. He can't lose Danny as well, he'd not survive it. Danny has made his life so much better, has mended Steve's heart in a thousand different ways- it's impossible to imagine carrying on without him.

“God,” he now says, barely audible. “Grace. I need to call Rachel.”

Kamekona nods sympathetically: “Anything I can do to help?”

“Not at the moment, thank you. I appreciate it.”

 

Rachel sounds so horrified that Steve wonders about the exact nature of her feelings towards her ex-husband. But then, Danny has this effect on people: they can't but adore him. He's one of a kind, that guy, and Steve once more forbids himself to think about him any further because he'd break down right there and then if he did. So he promises Rachel to call her as soon as he's got any news: “We're trying to keep this out of the media, but just to make sure, better not let Grace watch TV today.”

“Okay,” she says, trying to get a grip on herself. “Thank you, Steve.”

He puts the phone down and looks at his feet, closing his eyes for a moment and wishing this was nothing but a nightmare.

 

Danny is beginning to shiver from the cold at one point, but at least that tells him that he's still alive. He forces himself to breathe in and out slowly, deeply, and tries to think of Steve. Steve wouldn't give up so easily, he'd stubbornly keep trying to find a way out of here. And he probably would, because he's awesome that way. Danny thinks of Steve's smile and feels its warmth all through his body for a precious moment, briefly making him forget that he's shivering and scared because he's in a tiny, closed room in the dark and he still doesn't know why and what is going to happen.

He's hungry and thirsty as well, but those aren't his biggest problems right now; his head is still aching fiercely, and for the life of him he can't recall what happened. He remembers walking down the stairs after getting up, but that's it. Due to the darkness, he has no way of knowing what time it is either, which somehow is disconcerting.

Exhaustedly, he leans his head against the wall and closes his eyes again; the dread is like a large, cold hand between his shoulder blades.

 

He has almost dozed off when he hears a sound somewhere above him. Immediately, he scrambles to his feet; a moment later, there's a sound and light as something which seems to be a trap door opens; before he can react, four strong hands reach down, haul him out of the hole and throw him onto the floor rather ungently. Danny squints, barely able to see at first because he's been in the dark for so long; he's in a kind of derelict barn, and the man who now comes to stand in front of him looks entirely unfamiliar. Yet he smiles kind of shark-like so that Danny can't even be relieved to have escaped out of that hole.

“Who are you?” he asks.

The man shakes his head: “You're not so easily intimidated, I'll give you that, Detective,” he says.

Danny's glad that he apparently doesn't know about his claustrophobia.

“Hm,” he says, sitting up even though his head complains at this. “Maybe you'd at least be so kind to tell me why I'm here. It's only fair, considering that you kidnapped me.”

The guy grins again; he's ugly, but his grin still reminds Danny of a shark. “I need you to tell me where we'll find Doris McGarrett.”

Inwardly, Danny frowns: S _eriously_? Outwardly, he purses his lips: “In that case, you could have saved yourself the expense; I barely know the woman. Sorry. Can I go home now?”

Sharky nods towards his two gorillas who grab Danny's arms and shoulders and force him onto his knees, which at least one of them doesn't take too kindly. He tries to put the majority of his weight onto his good leg, though that isn't so easy while he's being held down.

Predictably, Sharky hits him in the face to show him that he means business and also who's boss, and he's got a really mean right hook. As the pain explodes throughout his already aching head, Danny gasps, aware that this very likely is only the beginning, and hopes that Steve will find him soon.

 

The visit in Halawa isn't successful. Kahele hasn't been in contact with anyone because he's been in solitary confinement for the past five weeks, so that's a dead end. Chin and Lou take the laptop to Fong, hoping that he'll maybe find something Chin has overlooked, and return to Steve's house. The Transit van seems to have disappeared, but Kono doesn't give up. She is following up on the other topics from Jennings' browser history, additionally running CCTV footage from all over the island, checking it for the van even though there are hundreds of those.

Chin goes to join her at HQ while Lou stays with Steve to keep him from losing it, which is easier said than done. Steve is tense and cranky by now; it's in the middle of the afternoon, and they haven't gotten anywhere. He is pacing up and down again, chewing on his lip: “Something is very wrong here,” he says at one point. Lou, who has sat down and is watching his friend silently, shakes his head: “Everything about this is wrong, I'd say,” he replies.

Steve snorts: “Why haven't they called? And why are they stupid enough to get themselves filmed during their stakeouts? And why-”

Lou raises his hand appeasingly: “I get it, Steve, I do. But maybe they aren't as highly professional as we made them out to be. Jennings is a small fish, after all.”

“Yeah.” Steve runs a hand over his face: “It just doesn't make any sense,” he says, his voice brittle now. Lou nods understandingly; he knows how Steve must feel, having been in a similar situation after all.

 

Danny's back in the dark. He isn't sure whether his eyes are open or closed this time; everything hurts, and he's wet from repeatedly having been plunged into a barrel full of icy water until he had seen stars. At one point, he must have passed out, because he doesn't remember how he got back into the hole. But the sharky guy has told him, and that he remembers all too well, that he'll stay down here until he's ready to talk.

The problem is that he doesn't know Danny, who is as stubborn as they come and would never betray someone like that even if he actually knew where Doris McGarrett was, so he's probably going to die down here if Steve doesn't find him first.

The other problem is that Danny now knows for sure that he's in a hole in the ground, so the panic is back and twice as bad.

He's curled up again, freezing and close to hyperventilating.

 

That evening, Steve sits with his head in his hands and grits his teeth; Jennings is still unaccounted for, the van hasn't been found either and Kono and Chin are getting nowhere with the data from the confiscated laptop. And Danny... Steve closes his eyes. _Hang in there, Danno_ , he thinks. _We'll find you. I'll get you back_.

 

Five-0 don't have a habit of giving up so soon, on the contrary. They work through the night if they have to, and this case is no exception. It's nearing midnight when Kono, tired as she is, suddenly sits up straight: “Here.”

It's the Transit van, filmed in Waialua on the North Shore an hour earlier. Kono freezes the image and tries to get a better look at the driver, but the windshield is reflecting the light of a street lamp, so she can't see if it's Jennings.

Chin immediately calls HPD to dispatch a local patrol; when they finally call in that they've found the van, it's been abandoned in a parking lot in Haleiwa Alii Beach Park. Steve, wide awake again, immediately sends CSU over to look at the vehicle, but somehow, he doesn't have much hope. Something's still not sitting right with him, and he doesn't think he'll ever get that ransom call. So he leaves the house in the early hours of the following day, Eddie at his heels, and drives to HQ. Kono is napping on the couch while Chin, with red-rimmed eyes, is still perusing some data on the tech table.

“Hey,” he greets Steve quietly, not even asking what he's doing here.

“Did you get some sleep?” Steve asks.

“A couple of hours. Kono and I took turns.”

Gratefully, Steve squeezes his shoulder. His gaze briefly wanders over to Danny's office before he concentrates: “Can I see the CCTV footage of the van leaving yesterday morning?”

“Yeah.” Chin pulls it up with a few swipes. Steve watches with narrowed eyes: “He wasn't in it,” he says softly.

“What?”

“We need to look at the other cars which were driving by this morning. They knew we were going to look at the CCTV footage, the van's just a ruse. I'm guessing we won't find Jennings either, at least not alive. These people are clever.” Which makes them all the more dangerous.

Chin sighs: “Makes sense. And a lot of work.” But he's already at it.

 

Danny's lost all sense of time. He's numb from the cold, but he barely registers it because he needs to focus on breathing. On top of everything else, his chest is hurting and he feels dizzy and lightheaded. His throat hurts as well; it's possible that he's been screaming a little. He's in a small, narrow hole in the ground and he's going to die in here, he's certain of it now. He thinks of Grace and Steve and how he'll never see them again, and it almost makes breathing entirely impossible. So he can't think of that, he needs to concentrate on inhaling and exhaling. He's very thirsty, which isn't making it easier, and his hands are shaking again, as is the rest of him. He tries not to think about all the earth around him and how really close the walls are, but it is difficult; the darkness is pervasive, whether he closes his eyes or not, providing an excellent canvas for all the unbidden imagery that his feverish mind is producing right now.

They've tried to interrogate him for a second time, but Danny still hasn't said anything despite the beating and the water. His thoughts, sluggish as they were, wandered to his partner Grace in between because the fear he felt was the same as on that fateful day he lost her, and he realized that his borrowed time finally seems to have come to an end. They'll probably shoot him the next time, but he's beyond caring about that because he's resigned himself to the fact that he won't survive this anyway.

At one point, he may have fallen asleep despite everything, overwhelmed by his exhaustion; he thinks he may be hallucinating when he hears something that sounds like gunfire, but then the trap door opens and a light shines in. He closes his eyes, curling up tighter in anticipation of what is likely going to happen, but there are no gorillas this time, no one is forcibly hauling him out of the hole. Instead, he hears his name, and then there are hands on his arms, his shoulders, his face, and then there's Steve and his hand is warm on Danny's neck, his thumb stroking over the cold skin. Danny leans against his chest and inhales deeply and even though he is still shivering, he realizes that he won't die in here after all, and that thought is enough to make him inhale with a shudder and just sag against his partner, knowing that he's safe now: “'ve,” he manages. “'ole.”

Steve closes his arms around him, appalled but so relieved that he's trembling himself: “I've got you, Danno,” he says with his face in Danny's hair; his voice is choked. “I've got you, Baby. I'll get you out of here.”

Danny shudders once more, and they just stay like this for a long moment.

 

Steve insists on riding in the ambulance with Danny. He is seething with rage and fiercely glad that they've caught Danny's captors alive- he'll have a talk with them they won't forget any time soon. But he'll let them stew for a while- Danny comes first.

It's taken Steve and his team far too long to go through the images and check all the vehicles, but in the end, they had been lucky- because Fong is such a wizard, he finally supplied the missing link by reconstructing deleted data from an email which provided them with the name of the car owner they'd otherwise never known. By the time they had found the secluded piece of land which belonged to said person and which was where Danny was being held, it was already getting dark again. Steve still doesn't know the reasons for the abduction, and the past two days are beginning to blur together now that he's crashing from his adrenaline high, but it doesn't matter for the time being; Danny is all that matters.

Steve recalls those first few seconds after he's found him, the state Danny was in, the way he had sagged against his partner. A hole in the ground, of all things. Steve's heart constricted at the notion of what Danny must have gone through because of the claustrophobia alone. He held him tightly, and while he still wished he could undo all of this, Danny passed out in his arms.

Once they had gotten him out of that hole and had a better look at him, Steve immediately wanted to strangle someone, and when his gaze fell on the thugs right then, they shrank away from the high voltage in his stare. If it hadn't been for Danny, he'd have broken every single bone in their bodies right there on the spot. As it were, he just stared at them with an unmistakable promise in his gaze, then he turned away and ignored them as he hovered close to Danny while the EMTs got to work.

Steve rubs his hand over his tired eyes; Danny looks awful. His face is bloody and bruised and terribly pale underneath. His skin was utterly clammy and cold when Steve found him, and even now, he's shivering, not responding to any stimuli.

 

When the team join Steve in the waiting room an hour later, he's pacing again. It's Lou who takes his arm gently but firmly, steers him over to one of the couches and pushes him down to sit while Chin goes to find some coffee. Kono sits down on Steve's other side and takes his hand, squeezing it: “He'll be okay,” she says softly. “You know he's strong.”

Steve nods; of course he does, and he's been telling himself the same. But it's good to hear it from someone else nevertheless; the sight of Danny in that damn hole has thoroughly shaken him, has too vividly reminded him of his partner's susceptibilities. He can't bear it when Danny's injured, and on top of having been tortured, he's been incarcerated for roughly 35 hours, trapped in one of his worst nightmares. Steve knows this because they've talked about it once. There aren't many things Danny's actually afraid of, but apart from losing Grace, Steve or anyone else he loves, the list includes drowning, death by fire or being stuck in a small room without any means to escape.

 

It takes another hour until a doctor comes to talk to them, and it's only Steve who's subsequently allowed to see Danny in the ICU. He looks impossibly fragile in the large hospital bed, surrounded by machines; his skin tone nearly matches the sheets where it isn't discoloured by bruises, and he is breathing warmed air through an oxygen mask and covered by a warming blanket. The nurse on duty informs Steve that the fluids Danny is receiving intravenously are being warmed as well in order to reduce the hypothermia. He's on two different IVs since he's also severely dehydrated.

Steve takes all of this in with wide eyes and a sense of dread; he's seen Danny in similarly bad situations, has been there himself often enough, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a blow every time. The doctor has informed him that Danny has sustained a concussion, probably from a blow to the temple, and a hairline crack in his left cheekbone. Apart from that, he's apparently been lucky, as far as one can speak of luck- he's suffered extensive bruises and contusions, a few severely bruised ribs among them, but no broken bones.

“It's all rather painful,” the doctor had said, “but not life-threatening, once we've got his temperature back to normal.”

As Steve now regards his battered partner, he can't but think that luck has got nothing to do with this.

 

Danny's being moved to a ward as soon as the hypothermia has abated. Steve, who's spent the night on the waiting room couch, goes in to see him as soon as he is allowed. He's already called Rachel and told her what has transpired; she was shocked but managed to keep her composure.

To Steve's pleasant surprise, Danny is blinking as his partner enters the room. His gaze is unfocused, but his expression lightens up ever so subtly when he sees his visitor.

Steve gently takes Danny's hand, leaning over him so that he can bend down and kiss him: “Danno,” he says softly. “Hey, Baby.”

Danny swallows: “S'eve,” he manages. “You 'kay?” His voice is still hoarse and very feeble, but Steve can see the concern in his partner's face and knows that he can't lie to him.

“It was bad,” he admits. “But now that I've got you back...” He smiles. “More than okay.”

Danny studies him though he looks far too tired to do so. “Goof,” he manages, sounding affectionate.

Steve smiles at him: “Do you need anything?”

“Jus' sleep.” Danny's eyes are already closing, but then he blinks them open again, which obviously is an effort: “S'eve,” he rasps. “Guy... asked 'bout Doris.” Exhaustedly, he swallows once more.

Steve frowns: “What?”

Danny is fading rapidly, so Steve, as much as this piece of information churns something up in him, forces himself to remain calm because he doesn't want to upset his partner: “Okay,” he breathes. “Okay. Thank you.”

Cautiously, he strokes the uninjured part of Danny's jaw: “Love you, Danno,” he murmurs. “So much.”

Danny mutters a mostly unintelligible reply. Steve keeps caressing him because his heart is so full of love for this man; it should have been him to ask his partner whether he was okay, not the other way round, but that is his Danno: always considerate of other people's emotions. Steve is so grateful that he's got him back that he can feel a shudder running his spine at the notion. He's agitated about what Danny just told him, but despite his inner turmoil, he can't bring himself to leave yet, so he stays and watches over Danny's sleep.

 

It's Kono who comes in around ten to relieve him, and as much as Steve wants to stay by Danny's side, he can't postpone the interrogation of his partner's kidnappers any longer.

Chin is already waiting for him by the room in the basement: “Turns out that CSU found a pair of fake license plates hidden in the van,” he says after asking how Danny's doing. “That's why it hasn't been noticed earlier.”

Steve nods grimly: “So I was right, they did it on purpose. Well. Let's see what they've got to say about that.”

They are determined not to say anything at first, but Steve isn't in the mood for games, and he doesn't think they've deserved any leniency, so he doesn't hold back, and Chin conveniently leaves the room a few times. Therefore it doesn't take long until they've got the whole story cobbled together: their captives apparently have close ties to a Cambodian gang which had been accountable for a significant amount of the drug trade in Asia's Golden Triangle. Apparently, said gang had suffered a major blow and subsequent setback during a large-scale raid recently, and apparently, Doris McGarrett's intel did have a whole lot to do with that.

“So they wanted to take her out,” Steve finishes as he tells Kono all this a few hours later. “Only problem was that they didn't know where she was.”

Kono shakes her head: “Unbelievable,” she says. “Fucking half-wits. But why kidnap Danny? With all due respect, boss- but...” She breaks off.

Steve folds his arms in front of his chest: “I know. I'm her son, why not get it straight from the horse's mouth? I asked them the same, and they said that I was a SEAL, after all.” His eyes darken for a moment, and his gaze wanders over to Danny's room. “I was trained to endure torture.”

Kono bites her lip: “I see.”

For a moment, they are silent, then Steve rubs his eyes with one hand: "Oh, and Jennings was only a tool, just as we thought. He's dead, HPD already found the body."

“I still don't understand why they took Danny. How could they be sure that he knew about your mom?” Kono frowns.

Steve looks pained: “They had our phones bugged. They overheard a conversation with my sister.” He blushes a little: “I told her that I don't keep any secrets from Danny. They must have heard that.”

Kono shakes her head again, and neither of them speaks.

Eventually, Steve takes a deep breath: “He didn't tell them anything,” he says, sounding proud.

Nodding, Kono smiles warmly: Danny isn't a coward, and he's loyal. “He's tough,” she says softly.

“Kamekona said the same,” Steve replies. He takes a deep breath: “I'll go in now. Anything I should know?”

“No. He didn't wake up once, he must be exhausted.”

“Yeah. Thank you for holding the fort.” Steve gives her a brief smile, but his thoughts are with Danny already.

He has made the ringleader of that little gang of low-lifes tell him exactly what they did to Danny, even though it was hard to hear.

 

As he returns to his previous spot right next to the bed, his gaze roams over his partner's sleeping form and he wants nothing more than to forever protect him from this kind of violence. He feels guilty because it's just so stupid and unnecessary that Danny should suffer because of Steve's complicated family, and he is irrationally angry with his mom- did she have to be a CIA agent of all things!

“Why're you frowning?” Danny looks at Steve from tired eyes. To Steve, he nevertheless looks as lovely as he always does.

“I was thinking,” he admits. “But you've got my full attention now.”

“Hm,” Danny makes. “Kiss'd be nice.”

So Steve leans down and kisses him tenderly. “How are you feeling?” he then asks.

“Groggy,” Danny replies. But he is doing much better just because Steve's with him now. “Can you stay for a bit?”

“Yeah. I've taken the rest of the day off.”

“Did you call Rachel?”

“Yeah. I told her we'd be in touch as soon as you felt up to it.”

Danny looks relieved. “You're the best,” he mutters. “Come closer?”

So Steve, after the briefest moment of deliberation, slips out of his boots, pushes the bed railing down and climbs onto the mattress very cautiously in order not to jostle Danny or the line of his drip. Once Steve is lying down and he's nestled against him, Danny slowly turns his head into Steve's shirt and inhales deeply, sighing with relief.

Gently, Steve puts his arm around him, careful not to apply any pressure on his battered body but wanting to make him feel safe all the same. He rests his cheek against Danny's hair and just listens to his steady breathing, once more grateful that he hasn't lost him.

 

Just when Steve thinks that he's probably fallen asleep, Danny speaks: “I didn't think I'd see you again.”

His voice is soft and still too brittle and slightly muffled by Steve's shirt; he can feel Danny's breath through it, warm and humid. But he understood the words nevertheless.

“Don't say that,” Steve whispers because all of a sudden, his throat is dry and he doesn't trust his voice. “I was always going to find you.”

"I know." Danny sounds desolate nevertheless, and he is trembling: the suffocating darkness is still threatening even in hindsight. "But I really thought my borrowed time was up."

Steve's now shaking hand finds Danny's cheek, caresses it: "We've got time," he whispers against Danny's temple. "Listen to me, Danno: we've got time. We are going to grow old together. We'll _take_ that time, okay?"

Danny makes a small snuffling sound, and then another: “Okay."

Steve continues to caress him until they've both stopped shaking so badly.

 

"I didn't tell them anything.” Danny eventually murmurs.

“I know.” Steve involuntarily smiles, pressing a kiss on his partner's hair. “They still can't believe it.”

“You didn't throw them into a shark cage, did you?” Danny asks after a moment of comprehension.

“Nah... I just bared my own teeth at them.”

“Animal.” Danny sounds amused. With a sigh, he nuzzles deeper into Steve's shirt: “Missed you.”

“You too.” Steve gently caresses his arm. “I'm sorry,” he then murmurs. “I'm so sorry, Danno.”

“What for?”

“For everything. For this whole mess about Doris.”

“Not your fault, Babe.”

Steve closes his eyes: “I didn't want you to be so scared,” he whispers into Danny's hair.

“Not your fault,” Danny repeats, burrowing even deeper into the security of Steve's embrace; he'll have nightmares about the matter, that much seems clear. But he'll not be alone, and he'll muddle through it just as he's always done. He feels stronger here, in Steve's arms; they keep the darkness at bay.

 

When Danny finally does doze off, Steve stays where he is; he doesn't have any other place to be right now, and if he did, he wouldn't care.

After all, he needs this as much as his partner does.

 

 

The End

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!  
> I'm not a Native Speaker, therefore I apologize for any mistakes.
> 
> Timeline: set some time between seasons four and five.


End file.
